Portal:Current events/2012 January 27

January 27, 2012 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Chinese security forces shoot dead a young Tibetan man in Sichuan province, at least the third such killing this week. (BBC)
Arab Spring:
- 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
  - Activists say the Syrian Army has launched new attacks against Homs and Hama, as the United Nations Security Council prepares to discuss the conflict. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
  - Syrian security forces kill over 100 civilians across Syria, primarily in the cities of Homs and Daraa. (Al Arabiya)
- 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising:
  - Amnesty International calls for an investigation into the fatal tear gassing of residential areas by Bahraini security forces. (BBC)
Insurgency in the North Caucasus: 13 people are killed in three separate clashes between the Russian forces and Islamist militants in the Russian republics of Ingushetia, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkariya. (AFP via Google News)

Arts and culture

170 international writers, including the Nobel laureates J. M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mario Vargas Llosa and Derek Walcott, take out a full page advert in Mexican newspaper El Universal to defend the freedom of journalists from fear and censorship. (BBC)

Business and economy

The Economic Commission for Africa says Africa's economy faces "serious" threats because of the Eurozone crisis and the Arab Spring. (BusinessWeek)
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose economy would be severely affected, denounces the Tobin tax under consideration in the European Union. (City AM)
Spain's unemployment figure passes five million for the first time in nearly 17 years. (BBC)

Law and crime

Two sacks of cocaine are accidentally delivered to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. (CNN) (The Telegraph)
Willem Holleeder, a notorious convicted Dutch felon, is released from jail after serving six years of a nine-year sentence for extortion and blackmail. (DutchNews)
Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt to go on trial for genocide. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

Kader Arif, the European Parliament's rapporteur for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), resigns amid protests against the treaty. (BBC)
Russia's Central Election Commission refuses to register opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky of the Yabloko party, citing invalid signatures. (Russia Today)
A media advisor to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard resigns after leaked information that led to a confrontation between Australian Aborigines and Gillard yesterday. (Wall Street Journal)

Science and technology

Politics and elections

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's main opposition leader condemns parliamentary elections as rigged and calls for a general strike on Monday in protest at his house arrest. (BBC)
In the Netherlands, the Council of Ministers vote in favor of a ban on the Burqa, an outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions. (DutchNews)